Aimee Fitzgerald

Artist statement

I chose to examine the interaction of individual identity with photographic records, focusing on portrait photographs of the Victorian era.

I used original nineteenth century photographs as well as recreations of Victorian family portraits, using myself as a model.

I chose to reenact these highly stylised roles, in which the foremost trappings of identity are clothing and pose, to show how interchangeable figures are within the prescribed templates of Victorian photography.

They also show the way in which within the historical record, an individual is reduced to the most superficial aspects of their identity.

The work is also an appreciation of the Victorian aesthetic, and an exploration of early photographic processes and the ageing process of photographs.